


All Eyes But These Eyes

by the_rck



Category: Weiß Kreuz
Genre: Alternate Universe - Steampunk, Demonic Possession, Demons, Gen, Psychic Abilities
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-04
Updated: 2017-11-04
Packaged: 2019-01-29 10:43:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,995
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12629265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_rck/pseuds/the_rck
Summary: He looked at each member of his team in turn. "We're the third team they've sent," he reminded them. "The first team disappeared entirely. The second..." He cleared his throat. "The second came back in pieces." Very small pieces that showed signs of having been gnawed on and that in no way came close to adding up to four bodies, but there had been eight completely undamaged ears among the remains.//They don't actually intend for us to succeed,//he told his team through the link Schuldig maintained for them.//We're just not supposed to realize that. We're the stopgap while they try to put together a serious war party.////More fools them.//Nagi's smile contained all the certainty of youth, and Brad envied him.





	All Eyes But These Eyes

**Author's Note:**

> Title from “The Lover pleads with his Friend for Old Friends” by W.B. Yeats.
> 
> Based on the following prompt: "steampunk WK. Schwarz has been assigned to suppress a device that a mad Japanese scientist named Takatori has created which will bestow psychic powers upon all mankind. They run into opposition in the form of a Japanese team of assassins named Weiss--and the team's leader, a young woman named Aya--who have harnessed a demon's powers to aid them."
> 
> This is possibly not properly steampunkish, but I think I hit the other points.
> 
> It's possibly to read this as either gen or implied Crawford/Schuldig.
> 
> Thanks to lauand and to Hope of Dawn for advice and assistance. I think the story's better for your input.

Brad Crawford allowed himself a few seconds to enjoy the slight, springy give to the upholstery of the chair in their first class suite. They were heading for Tokyo by airship. _I thought we'd have longer._ Part of him wanted to feel triumphant; the rest of him was riding a barely controlled edge of terror induced adrenaline. His years of nightmares and 'junk' visions were proving more accurate than the more prosaic futures seen by his highly valued peers and teachers. _Except that this may be leading to Hell._

 _//We can use it.//_ Schuldig's mind gave the words the cutting edge of his intentions.

"Maybe." Brad looked up at the wood veneered ceiling and tried to sort through the futures he'd hidden so carefully for the last dozen years. Having them out where he could study them had meant risking someone else discovering that he still got them, so he’d mostly just hoped that he was as wrong as his teachers had told him he was. "Maybe not." He said the last two words so quietly that he almost couldn’t hear them himself over the whirring of the fans circulating air and the rumble of engines as the airship began its journey.

He was pretty sure that Schuldig understood the risks and that the other two members of his team did not. Schuldig, after all, had taught Brad most of the tricks of the mind that let him conceal the unacceptable things he saw from the powers that be at Rosenkreuz. Brad, in turn, had helped Schuldig conceal other things.

Brad and Schuldig would succeed or fail together.

He looked at each member of his team in turn. "We're the third team they've sent," he reminded them. "The first team disappeared entirely. The second..." He cleared his throat. "The second came back in pieces." Very small pieces that showed signs of having been gnawed on and that in no way came close to adding up to four bodies, but there had been eight completely undamaged ears among the remains.

 _//They don't actually intend for us to succeed,//_ he told his team through the link Schuldig maintained for them. _//We're just not supposed to realize that. We're the stopgap while they try to put together a serious war party.//_

 _//More fools them.//_ Nagi's smile contained all the certainty of youth, and Brad envied him.

"An inventor named--" Brad forced himself to stumble over the name that had haunted his dreams since he was seven. "--Takatori Masafumi offered to sell Rosenkreuz a device that could endow normal humans with psychic powers. The first team was supposed to pay him, get the device, figure out where his notes were and if there were other similar devices, and then make sure that everything burned." _//I strongly suspect that team four, assuming there is one, will simply obliterate Japan on the theory that it's the only way to be sure.//_ He wasn't going to tell Nagi and Farfarello that that might not help. Schuldig knew. Brad knew. The others didn't need to, not yet.

 _Not when I haven't decided yet if we're fighting, rabbiting, or defecting._ He had a few days before they reached Tokyo. That would be enough time to decide. _It has to be._ He really wished that their cabin, that the whole airship, didn’t lean heavily toward red in the color scheme for the decor. _Too much like blood. It’s too easy to see the worst visions as most likely here._

“We have time,” Brad told his team. “Time to sleep, to eat, to plan. Not enough time--” _//Or privacy.//_ “--to drill properly.”

 _//If we fight, do we have any chance of winning?//_ Schuldig asked privately.

As he had every previous time Schuldig had asked, Brad sent back the mental equivalent of a shrug. _//I haven't found it yet.//_ But he also hadn't given up hope that there was an answer. He stood, swaying a little in response to the movement of the airship as the wind buffeted it. “I’m going to meditate.” He looked at Nagi and Farfarello in turn. _//Schuldig knows what I know. What I’m certain of. He’ll share that and our cover story.//_ He hesitated for a moment then added. _//We’ll all look at the visions later on.//_

Which, if they were paying attention, would tell them clearly that their team leader was ditching Rosenkreuz. Brad didn't foresee either Nagi or Farfarello choosing to leave, but he thought it only fair to give them the opportunity.

Schuldig laughed softly. _//Given that the airship doesn't stop anywhere short of Tokyo, leaving isn't likely to be less suicidal than staying.//_

Brad stood. _//I paid our fares through to Auckland. You can tell them that, too.//_ He crossed the heavy Persian carpet that looked too much like there’d been a massacre and went into one of the tiny bedrooms off the side of the room where his team had gathered. Each bedroom had two bunks and just enough space to stand next to them. Brad climbed to the upper bunk and sat, looking inward and hoping that certainty would deign to visit.

****

The next morning, while the team was eating breakfast, Schuldig said privately, _//You should show Nagi and Farfarello the visions. Now, not later, not when we get to Japan.//_ He managed to sound both hesitant and determined. _//All of them. No. Don't look to see if it will work out the way you want it to.//_

Brad's hands twitched because he had been about to do that.

 _//All the options say that we're fucked anyway. Stop pretending you can find another way.//_

Brad stared at his plate for a moment and wished that the food didn’t all taste like sawdust to him. He knew it was psychosomatic. He also knew that, once they arrived in Japan, it would be a very long time before he had a chance to eat lamb again. _And the food served by this company is always excellent. I might as well have brought my own and saved the cost of meals._ He lifted his napkin and wiped his lips. The white linen smelled faintly of lemon. _At least, I can still smell that._

 _//The rest of us would never forgive you for making us eat crap.//_ “Besides,” Schuldig went on, “we’re stuck in this damned cabin for days yet. Might as well amuse ourselves.” _//You did say you would. Who knows? Maybe one of them can see something in the visions that we haven’t.//_

 _There was another way. Once. If anyone else had believed me. Takatori Masafumi is-- was? Almost certainly was --younger than I am._ Brad kept the thought hidden. He saw no point in sharing his bitterness. _//All the good might bes that come from defecting depend on how much they like us. I'm not sure-- I'm not willing to abandon anyone, and seeing the might bes could make playing nice harder for some of us.//_

Nagi didn’t seem to have noticed the silent parts of the conversation. 

Farfarello, on the other hand, watched Brad and Schuldig as if he were hearing every word. If Brad hadn’t known that telepathic eavesdropping wasn’t one of Farfarello’s gifts, he’d have assumed the white haired man was listening in.

Schuldig's smile contained layers that Brad couldn't quite read. "You already know what you'd rather do, then."

Brad gave Schuldig a look that should have given him a concussion. "What _I_ would be better off doing is not necessarily what _we_ would be better off doing." _//You all need to see everything.//_ Brad said via Schuldig’s open channel. His mouth was dry, and he had no idea how to begin. _//I was going to hold some back because they’re unlikely or certainly not true, given what we know, but… This is going to affect all of us.//_

 _//I can pass the visions along,//_ Schuldig told the group. _//Crawford will have to provide the interpretations.//_

 _//Possible interpretations. There are a lot of things I'm guessing about.//_ At least, Brad didn’t have to force his vocal cords to work, not for this. _I shouldn’t be glad about the possibility of a spy._ Brad picked up his glass of water and emptied it.

A second, full glass settled on the table next to Brad’s plate. Since no one had gotten up to go to the tank to fill a glass, Brad assumed that Nagi had used his power for it. _And he wouldn’t do that without being told to, so Schuldig must have._

Somehow, even the extra water didn’t help the dryness in Brad’s throat.

 _//Of course not,//_ Schuldig said. _//It's entirely psychosomatic. You've been punished too damned many times for talking about this.//_ "This will take a while. He's been getting them for nearly twenty years now." _//I’d know if we had a spy listening,//_ he told Brad privately, _//and Farfarello was very… thorough in checking for devices. Just because it’s possible doesn’t mean it’s likely.//_

The device in Farfarello's damaged eye socket shifted and cycled as it focused on Brad to the exclusion of all else. "They thought they knew how the world worked," he said quietly. "And they think _I'm_ crazy."

Brad wasn't entirely sure that Farfarello wasn't, but he nodded anyway. "I think mostly... They'd never seen anything like this. They don’t believe in demons." He almost choked on the last word. “Other things, yes, but not this.” _//I’m not sure why that sort of travel should seem stranger or more impossible than probes to the moon and to other planets.//_

 _//Because they can see the planets.//_ Schuldig sounded completely certain.

Brad didn’t quite understand why seeing something through a telescope would be different from seeing it in a vision, so he shrugged. _//At this point, it’s irrelevant. It’s been too late for months. Not more than four but not less than two.//_ He looked at Nagi. "Have you shared visions before? These often contradict each other because they're possibilities rather than certainties." _//Schuldig--//_ he said privately. _//I'm not sure Nagi should see all of the things that might happen to him.//_ He thought that Nagi would handle the idea of dying with reasonable calm, but he suspected that the possibility of being turned into a mind controlled slave or of being physically or psychically maimed would upset him.

Schuldig nodded almost imperceptibly, and Farfarello's biological eye narrowed slightly. 

Brad was nearly certain that Schuldig had nodded only because it would alert Farfarello to the fact of private conversation. Having worked together for years, Brad and Schuldig could hold private, parallel conversations without noticeable delays in their public conversation.

They spent the next six hours looking at Brad's store of relevant-- or possibly relevant-- visions. Brad had them take at least five minutes of rest for every ten minutes of shared visions, and he made sure that everyone ate and had plenty of water. Neither Nagi nor Farfarello had the training to be trusted to remember such things themselves. _Not under these circumstances._

Farfarello seemed to enjoy the visions and, according to Schuldig, pulled hardest on those with the most destruction and pain. Even when it was his own pain.

 _//He wants the images like they’re pornography,//_ Schuldig said privately. _//He understands that those aren’t… desirable realities. He’s not going to try to make them more likely.//_

Brad didn’t want to admit to feeling relief at Schuldig’s words. _//We’re giving Farfarello enough information to be able to do that.//_

 _//That, you would certainly have seen coming.//_ Schuldig actually sounded serene.

Nagi looked a little green when they took their first break, but he settled quickly. Rosenkreuz didn’t allow any trainee to remain squeamish.

 _It’s just that, normally, they’re not dealing with horrors that might make their survival impossible._ Also, from what Brad knew of telekinetics, their powers could be amplified by emotions, so their training in that regard was different from his or from Schuldig’s.

Brad was nearly certain that Farfarello spotted the omissions. That surprised him. He hadn't realized that Farfarello understood people that well. Most of the people Rosenkreuz trained purely for murder didn't. _They're not supposed to care. Well, I knew he was different. That’s why I wanted him for the team._

They were all exhausted by the time Brad called a halt. _//Do they understand?//_

_//Let them nap on it. They're still too tired to ask questions.//_

Brad cleared his throat. "I don't know which version of Miss Fujimiya we're dealing with. Some of them would be better for us than others." _//We may have to work with her anyway.//_ He hated to admit that and could never have said it out loud, no matter how much it needed to be said. He squashed the urge to add the question that truly possessed him. _How bad does it have to be before surviving isn't worth the price?_

****

After arriving in Tokyo and finding a cheap hotel that catered to Europeans, after discussing matters with his team, Brad decided not to decide. _Not in advance of the data._ Waiting until they actually met Fujimiya Aya and her minions might give them necessary information. Brad had names, he had visual details, he had possibilities, but he had no certainties to offer. 

He let his eyes unfocus as he looked at a painting on the wall of the room he shared with Schuldig. _At least, there’s no red in here._

The blacks and grays made Brad think he smelled smoke and dust, but Schuldig had confirmed that none of the others smelled that. _//Not that the city doesn’t stink,//_ Schuldig told him, _//but the smoke isn’t the same. There’s no burned flesh and a hell of lot more sulfur. And your visions don’t include rotting trash.//_

Nagi and Farfarello were there, too, waiting for his orders. 

_//I still don’t know which one is the demon,//_ Brad admitted. _//Maybe there isn’t a demon. We could get that lucky.//_ The gnawed remains of the second team said otherwise, and all three members of his team looked skeptical, but it was a pleasant fantasy. Brad shrugged. _//This isn’t one of the Fujimiya Ayas who is willing run and hide. Or to surrender peacefully.//_

 _//We knew that already.//_ Farfarello was occupying his hands with a whetstone and one of his favorite knives. _//If she were, the second team would have vanished. The ears were an explicit challenge.//_ He studied the edge of his blade, shrugged, then put it aside, and picked up a second knife.

Brad couldn’t argue with that, so he just looked at Schuldig. “I want your opinion. We need to see them, and they’ll notice if we try to spy.” _//Dismemberment being the best option isn't encouraging,//_ he told the team. _//I’ve narrowed things down to find one of Miss Fujimiya's minions who isn’t likely to kill Nagi immediately nor to get herself killed or hurt trying.//_ He shared an image of Sakaki Ouka with the others. They’d seen her in his visions before and knew most of what he did about her.

 _//Even if the fact that she’ll think he’s cute is dangerous,//_ he told Schuldig privately.

Schuldig laughed. Brad didn’t.

****

Miss Sakaki eyed Nagi with speculative interest, tried to get him to invite her to dance, and, eventually, agreed to carry Brad's excruciatingly polite note to Miss Fujimiya.

 _//She’s a little peeved that he missed her efforts to flirt,//_ Schuldig told Crawford privately, _//but she did realize that he wasn’t being intentionally rude. She’s met clueless young men before.//_

Brad was just relieved that she wasn’t the demon. There’d only been a very minute chance that she was. It was the least likely of the might bes with the demon, but least likely never meant not possible.

Miss Fujimiya sent back a considerably less polite note agreeing to a meeting and setting the time and place. Even Brad's limited grasp of Japanese told him that she was deliberately asserting her higher status. _Her much higher status. This is one of the ones who wants power. Possibly just the power to protect her own, but… I can use that._

Nagi glowered at the note. If he'd had more than traces of pyrokinesis, something would have burned.

"It's all right," Brad told him. "It means she's not thinking of us as threats. We're better off that way." He removed his glasses and rubbed his eyes. "It lets us keep the option of leaving Japan while still alive." _It's a terrible option, but it still might be less terrible than the alternatives._ “We know enough to buy that from most versions of her.” _//The note and Miss Sakaki’s behavior support her being one of those.//_ He hesitated to say it out loud. He recognized that as superstition, but he supposed that indulging that wouldn’t hurt anything. _I’ll take anything at all that might help._

****

The meeting was set for after dark, in a weedy, open area between several industrial buildings. They visited the location the day before the meeting in order to get a feel for the terrain. The bit of land looked as if it had been accidentally overlooked by whoever planned the buildings, and Brad thought it had been until Nagi pointed out the small shrine at one end.

“The spirit of the place is strong enough that they didn’t dare remove the shrine,” Nagi said. For a moment, he looked as if he expected Brad to tell him not to be ridiculous.

 _The way the teachers at Rosenkreuz certainly would._ “You’ve seen what I see,” Brad told the boy quietly. “This seems more likely than that.”

A smile flickered across Nagi’s face, something that Brad suspected was an echo of who Nagi had been before training. Then he was all business again. _//The spirit’s not respected enough for anyone to maintain the space.//_ “She must think that the spirit will favor her.” He didn’t elaborate, but Brad was able to focus on the idea to see some possibilities.

Brad’s eyes narrowed. He could see the probability of the small field becoming well tended with offerings at the shrine. He thought that he was seeing the small building rebuilt, just in the exact configuration it currently had. _//I think it’s a good thing we’re not intending to lie or to start a fight,//_ he told the others. _//Nagi, if they attack first and you shield us, the spirit won’t take sides. It has no reason to like us at all, but we haven’t offended it. It’s just that she’s made it promises that she intends to keep.//_

Nagi squared his shoulders. _//We need to offer thanks at the shrine, thanks for safety and fairness. Offering food would be wise, too.//_

Brad waved a hand to indicate that Nagi should show them what to do. He sent Schuldig a private order to go and buy something they could offer. He didn’t like sending Schuldig away, but he didn’t trust Farfarello for this.

Nagi stopped a short distance from the shrine. He bowed and clapped twice.

Brad stopped two steps behind Nagi and copied his movements. _I really hope this helps._

****

Miss Fujimiya didn't look like a monster. She looked very young, not much older than Nagi, and very tired. She was thinner than her features seemed to want to be. Her clothing was traditionally Japanese, dark enough in color to look black in the limited light, and designed in such a way that Brad couldn’t tell if it was too big. He thought that the garment was high quality, but he knew he was no judge of even European clothing in that respect.

Still, it let him discard a certain number of possibilities as not applicable. _She's not the demon. Which means--_ He studied the four men standing with the young woman then closed his eyes for a moment. _//It's the brother, the redhead,//_ he told the team. _//Don't go near his mind.//_

Schuldig made a small noise that Brad recognized as irritation that Brad thought Schuldig was that stupid.

Farfarello shifted his weight slightly as he sized up his potential opponents. He’d objected strongly to coming unarmed and had accepted it only when recon, hours before the scheduled meeting, showed multiple pieces debris at the site that could be used as weapons. He’d stated that one of those in his hands would likely last long enough to let the rest of the team run.

Brad held up his empty hands for about three seconds then bowed as he would to Dame Abendroth. _This one is at least as dangerous. Less experienced but quite as dangerous._ He let go of his hope that killing Miss Fujimiya and gaining control of the demon might be possible.

"I don't think that means you're unarmed." Miss Fujimiya's English was considerably better than Brad's Japanese.

Brad shrugged. He allowed himself a thin smile and replied in English, "Because weapons work so very well against you."

She relaxed minutely, and that told him that she wasn't one of the versions that gloried in bloodshed. His team's chances of survival had improved.

 _Not that one of those was likely given how peaceful Tokyo currently seems. No recent massacres._ “I have no wish to copy my predecessors.”

One corner of Miss Fujimiya’s mouth twitched. “By dying?” Her tone was gentle, but no one listening missed the threat.

 _//She doesn’t actually speak English,//_ Schuldig told the team. _//A few words here and there, yes, but… It’s not telepathy exactly.//_

Brad didn’t allow himself to show any outward sign of the worry that caused him. _//We knew that the usual rules wouldn’t apply.//_

 _//And the demon’s not just in the brother. It’s got hooks in all of them except the Fujimiya girl.//_ That comment was private just to Brad. _//I don’t think they’ve noticed me.//_

 _//Given that we’re still alive...//_ Brad replied, equally privately while keeping his eyes fixed on Miss Fujimiya. He and Schuldig both knew that the demon being attached to multiple people was one of the might bes with the least room for mistakes. 

“It is my hope that we can find a… mutual interest or, at least, part with no ill will.” Brad managed a thin smile. “At the very least, we can give you some information about your enemies. The foreign ones, I mean.”

“I have some of that already.” Her voice was unyielding, but Brad thought he saw worry and interest in her eyes.

“From the other teams.” Brad didn’t bother making it a question. “We know things they don’t.” He knew that the words committed him to revealing what he knew, no matter how little Miss Fujimiya offered in return. _She’ll force it if she can’t get it any other way._ “None of us are fool enough to think that Rosenkreuz can defeat you when they don’t believe in what you are.” He hesitated for a moment. “I am not a diplomat by training, so I’ll be blunt. Our preferences are alliance or departure to somewhere in South America.” He shrugged. “You won’t get to that continent soon.”

Her attention sharpened. “You _know_.”

He nodded. “That’s my gift.” He very deliberately emphasized the last word. The possibilities collapsed a little. His team might still walk away, but Brad wouldn’t.

“And your colleagues?”

“Their Gifts, if any, are their own business.” Brad kept his expression neutral. “None of us wish to be sacrificed as distractions. Apart from that--” He made a tossing away gesture.

She took a moment before answering. “What can we offer you? Beyond survival, I mean.”

“Survival is not to be underrated,” he replied. “We will trade a great deal for survival and for not being tortured.”

She laughed. It sounded genuine. “You want more than that.”

“Naturally.” Brad made the word as dry as he could. “There are a number of specific people whose necks I’d like under my boot.” He smiled. “I’m pretty sure that the survivors will be happy to serve you.” He hesitated a moment then added, “Perhaps under my command.”

She smiled at him. “Perhaps.”


End file.
